Hana Ward

Seeing green (not money, but a new beginning), 2024

The title for Hana Ward’s painting Seeing green (not money, but a new beginning) (2024) is borrowed from a line in Brea Baker's book, Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership (2024), in which the writer and activist reconsiders the history of land theft and commodification in America and tells her family’s own stories of land loss in Kentucky and North Carolina. Seeing green depicts two women shelling beans together. “When contemplating collective action,” Ward explains, “I thought of images of some of these kinds of homestead activities traditionally done in groups. I wanted to reference imagining a new way of being, where solidarity is cultivated by coming together for a shared activity or common purpose.”

Inquire